Polycom,
Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified
communications and collaboration (UC&C), today announced that
UK-based global technology firm Smiths Group PLC is using Polycom®
RealPresence® video solutions in combination with Microsoft®
Lync™ Server 2010 to unify video, voice, and data communications
across 400 locations in over 50 countries, as well as for all of its
mobile employees, improving engagement, teamwork, and collaboration for
the entire company.

Bringing Global and Mobile Employees Together Face-to-Face

Smiths Group has five divisions creating products, technologies, and
services for the threat & contraband detection, medical devices, energy,
and communications markets worldwide. The group currently employs over
23,000 people across more than 50 countries to serve diverse customers
in a range of industries, including transport, military, petrochemical,
healthcare, telecommunications, and equipment manufacturing.

With employees dispersed over so many different business groups and
locations, Smiths faced challenges in communication and project
collaboration; in the speed of decision making; and in mounting travel
costs. Working with Polycom (News - Alert) partner Insight, Smiths implemented Polycom®
RealPresence® Room video solutions (including the Polycom® HDX® 8000
solution) and Polycom's executive desktop solution (Polycom® HDX® 4500
system) in fixed locations, and Polycom® RealPresence® Mobile 2.0 (News - Alert)
software for employees on the move. All RealPresence video solutions are
powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform - the most interoperable
and comprehensive UC&C software infrastructure for universal video
collaboration.

Smiths is currently expanding the use of Polycom's RealPresence Platform
software infrastructure by connecting it with Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync desktop
clients. "Interoperability was an absolute necessity for us to achieve
our long-term plans for enterprise-wide unified commnications and
collaboration. One of the main drivers behind our decision to purchase
Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions was their
interoperability with Microsoft Lync," said Simon Quintin, Director,
Workplace Services, Smiths Group PLC.

Smiths' ultimate vision is to deliver more agile, cost-effective
services to all customers around the world. And for Smiths this means
standardizing on core enterprise solutions, especially for
communications and collaboration, to ensure that its diverse and
globally dispersed staff and customers can most efficiently and
productively work together. Smiths are rolling out Microsoft Lync across
the entire company with a target completion date of mid-2013. The fact
that RealPresence video solutions seamlessly connect with Microsoft Lync
was a major selling point for Smiths. The goal is to "drive a different
way of working" with more engagement, better communication, less travel,
and faster reactions enabled by Microsoft and Polycom. Polycom offers a
broad and rich portfolio of video and voice solutions designed to
connect with Microsoft Lync to create a seamless UC&C experience across
the enterprise: Polycom offers a wide variety of solutions, including a
custom-built video room, multi-purpose phones, and numerous video
environments.

Together, Polycom and Microsoft truly unify communications across work
environments - on the go, home and work offices, conference rooms, and
immersive theaters, as well as industry-specific applications such as
healthcare, education, manufacturing, media, government, and retail.
With the combination of Lync and RealPresence, staff can launch video
collaboration sessions easily and intuitively from within familiar
interfaces and normal workflows, simply clicking a name on their Lync
contact list to securely collaborate face-to-face via Polycom video on
their desktop or in a conference room-based system.

Polycom video collaboration is now seen as one of the primary
communications mechanisms within Smiths and is used 24/7 for internal
meetings, regular board meetings, project and product reviews, HR
interviews, and training, enabling the various business units to work
better and more productively. Manufacturing, product development, and
management use video to increase engagement in the product development
process with other groups, partners, suppliers, and distributors, to
accelerate time-to-market and control costs, while also improving
quality.

"Polycom video conferencing has significantly changed our way of
working, enabling the company to break down some of the barriers to
communicating across a distributed work force whilst reducing travelling
costs, improving employee collaboration and increasing efficiencies
across business units," said Simon Quintin, Director, Workplace
Services, Smiths Group PLC. "The ability to cooperate and collaborate
securely with someone instantly has opened the lines of communication.
Straight audio is useful, but that ability to actually see someone
directly makes the whole communication mechanism more personal as you
build rapport quicker to get things done faster."

As adoption of Polycom video collaboration solutions has spread across
the company, mobile access has become increasingly important. The Group
is currently running a pilot using Polycom® RealPresence® Mobile 2.0
software for about 250 mobile staff using tablets and smartphones to
extend video collaboration beyond the office to virtually anywhere. The
Group plans to extend RealPresence Mobile software to more of its mobile
workforce in the coming months.

Due to the demanding nature of their business and the frequency with
which video is used, a key requirement and benefit of the solution was
the comprehensive product support provided by Polycom. Smiths Group
deployed Polycom® Elite Service, which provides direct access to an
assigned Elite Service manager and engineer, as well as 24/7 telephone
technical support.

About Smiths Group

Smiths is a global technology company listed on the London Stock
Exchange (SMIN) and operates a sponsored level one ADR programme
(SMGZY). A world leader in the practical application of technologies,
Smiths Group delivers products and services for the threat & contraband
detection, medical devices, energy and communications markets worldwide.
Our products and services make the world safer, healthier and more
productive. Smiths Group employs more than 23,000 people in over 50
countries. For more information visit: www.smiths.com.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified
communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video
collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world.
Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence®
Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that
interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile
and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video
collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over
7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that
deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability,
and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.co.uk
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